Below Grade Toilet

bathroom remodel by scituate handyman

A homeowner might have a large basement space and like to finish it off into living space including a bathroom, but the problem of a below grade bathroom might be holding them off.

Simply put water won’t flow upstream and if your main sewerage waste pipe leaves the house a foot or two above the basement floor, the toilet must either be installed on a platform if the ceiling height allows, or a sewer ejection pump must be installed to allow for a below grade bathroom installation.

Below Grade Bathroom-Ejector Pump

If your dreams for a basement bathroom are being stalled by the level of your main sewer pipe and your basement floor in relation to it, then the obvious choice for you is a sewage ejector pump.

Simply put a sewage ejector pump system consists of a 30 gallon tank buried below the toilet level which contains a pump and float switch which is activates by the liquid level in the tank. On activation the pump ejects the waste through a non return valve to the main house sewer.

The tank has a 3 or 4 inch inlet for all plumbing required for the below grade bathroom, a 2 inch outlet for the ejector pump and a 2 inch outlet for a vent to allow sewer gasses to be passed out of the living space. There is also an inlet for the electrical cord for the pump and float.

Below Grade Bathroom-Ejector Pump

It is worth noting that the sewage ejector pump is designed to grind and pump human waste and toilet tissue. Wet wipes are not toilet tissue and regardless of what it says on the label they are not suitable for use on an ejector pump. It is a very unpleasant job to open a sewage ejector tank which is overflowing with sewage because the pump has clogged with wet wipes and burned out.

Things not to be flushed in a toilet serviced by a sewer ejector pump include:

• Flushable wipes
• Sanitary items
• Condoms
• Dental floss
• Cigarettes
• Fruit pips/pits

If you install a bar or kitchen on your below grade bathroom plumbing it is important to note that fruit pips like olive stones will instantly seize your ejector pump.

Sewage ejector systems are relatively inexpensive and are available at most large building supply stores.

The Scituate Handyman has installed many sewage ejector pumps for below grade bathrooms and has also had the unpleasant job of replacing the pump for homeowners who failed to follow the guidelines for what should and should not flush.